


The Talk

by T Verano (t_verano)



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: 2012 TS Secret Santa drabble days prompt "The Feast of the Immaculate Conception", Gen, holiday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-08
Updated: 2012-12-08
Packaged: 2020-04-05 18:42:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19046191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_verano/pseuds/T%20Verano
Summary: Blair shares a childhood memory with Jim.





	The Talk

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2012 TS Secret Santa Drabble Days prompt "The Feast of the Immaculate Conception"

Jim picked up the card lying on the coffee table — he was curious, it didn't look like an ordinary Christmas card — and an old Polaroid photo fell out.

It was Blair, unmistakably. Seven, maybe eight, with a dark-haired girl around the same age, building a snowman together. They looked like they were having a whale of a time.

Blair glanced up from his book and smiled. "Naomi found that photo somewhere. That's Ellie. She was my best friend the winter we lived near Lake George. Lost track of her after that, though. I haven't thought of her in years."

"You look like you were having fun."

" I remember the day Naomi took that picture." Blair chuckled. "A couple of days later, she gave me The Talk for the first time. I think she was getting worried about me hanging out with Ellie so much."

Jim's eyebrows rose. "The Talk? You were, what, seven? Eight?"

"So?" Blair shrugged. "It wasn't like I didn't understand where she was coming from. I was freaking her out, and I knew it, but I was too fascinated to worry about it.

"Fascinated. At seven. Sandburg —"

"The thing was, I hadn't really spent any time around a family who was Catholic before, I mean really into it, and it was this whole other world. You could see the feelings of connection and commitment her parents had with their religion, and there was this sense of tradition and history and… well, the mysterious. I thought it was cool. It was the first time I was around people who were really involved in any kind of religious tradition; before then we'd lived at communes or stayed with friends who were all pretty laid back about everything.

Blair smiled. "Plus, there always seemed to be some kind of special day happening that Ellie's family found meaningful and important, like…" Blair closed his eyes in concentration "… right before Naomi took that picture, it was some kind of celebration about Mary… um, okay, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, I think, and Ellie showed me the candle her family lit in front of a statue of Mary, and her mother gave me some kind of gingerbread cookies she said were in honor of Mary. I think Naomi was afraid I was about to convert or something.

"So we had The Talk. You know — she'd never stand in my way, but the universe had many paths to explore and she hoped I would be adventurous and not settle for conventional beliefs until I'd checked out a lot more of what different cultures had to offer. That if I planned on being a scientist, I needed to keep an open mind and remember to cultivate detachment. It went pretty much like that, I think."

Jim's lips twitched. "Oh. _That_ talk."

"Yeah, sure. What talk did you think I meant?"

"The birds and the bees."

"Jim, I was _seven."_

"Right."

"I knew about the birds and the bees _years_ before that."

**Author's Note:**

> The cookies mentioned are Moravian Spritz or spice cookies.


End file.
